Nancy’s Ethiopian Report – September 2012

07Nov

Dear Brethren,

I wanted to put down a few thoughts from our recent trip to Ethiopia. As my husband has written we traveled to Ethiopia the last part of September, meeting our oldest son Barak in Addis Ababa. As usual, our dear brethren, “faithful” Bro. Jemal and Bro. Fikre, met us at the airport and took us to a guest house where we would be staying. I personally am very thankful for their efforts to try so hard to find a place that would be as comfortable as possible. The conditions are not always so easy and these Brothers try their best to help us in any way they can.

The Lord spoke a scripture to me a while back as my husband and I have had a burden for the children. The scripture is found in Matthew 19:13, “Then were there brought unto him little children that he should put his hands on them, and pray: and the disciples rebuked them.”

Matthew 19:14-15, “But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven. 15 and he laid his hands on them, and departed thence.”

There is much to be said of the Love God has for the children. We as Grandparents have been blessed with 20 grandchildren. As a grandmother I understand how precious each child is. How much more is the Love God has for each one of us.

This visit was a real blessing as we were able to meet many young people. The Salem village in Addis Ababa was founded some 26 years ago with a desire to help orphan children. The vision has greatly expanded and because of the faithfulness of the few many children have been rescued and not only fed natural food but spiritual food. We were invited to teach the older teens and also the 5-12 year old children. My husband and Barak dug into the word with the older ones while I was blessed to be with the “little” people. God is so faithful to me as I begin to tell the bible stories they just come alive before me. I believe the children better understand the Bible with visual pictures. Of course, this is not always possible but when it is the children seem quite blessed. This trip I had some wonderful visuals, thanks to my sister Susan Herrig and a woman I have never met.

Let me give you a brief history of how the flannel graphs came to me. Last year I was asking Sister Susan about flannel graphs as I thought they would be extremely helpful as you have wonderful colored visuals that are easy to put on the flannel board so you can, with the flow of the story, keep changing the pictures. The problem is you do not see flannel graphs used much anymore, but sister Susan took the request to task and found some very nice stories, 3 to be exact. She ordered them and with many delays (surprise) they finally came. Praise the Lord. I was happy with these visuals but thought, “Wouldn’t it be great to have the story of David and Esther as well?” Once again God is so marvelous. One day a couple in the fellowship brought Barak and Stacy large garbage bags full of flannel graph stories. You know it was one of those “this is too good to be true experiences.” Sophia and Lilly (Stacy too) began to sort through and bagged up each story individually for me so all I have to do is take the labeled bag for each story. The woman that faithfully cut out all these visuals had wanted children to hear and see the word. She is with the Lord now but her labor of Love is going forward all the way to Ethiopia, Europe and the Philippines (Lord willing when we go). Wow, such a praise report.

I must say I had a very happy time with the “little people” and they really liked the visuals. They sure were quite interested in the Armor of God and when they saw the fiery darts of the wicked one, it made them think.

This trip was fruitful and I believe because some seeds were sown in young people’s lives that with the proper water and care will produce great fruit of Righteousness.

God Bless You and Thank You so much for your Prayers,As I have often been called Bro. Burt’s wife Sister Nancy